Temperature is critical to microprocessor performance, particularly in mobile applications. In contrast to desktop applications, a mobile device microprocessor such as a system on a chip (SOC) has no fan to assist in cooling but must instead rely on passive cooling. Despite the inability to actively cool through the use of a fan, mobile device processing power continues to mushroom—for example, multiple core architectures are now routine. The resulting heat from the increased processing power may push the SOC to its thermal limit. For example, a common thermal limit for an integrated circuit is 90° C. Should the semiconductor substrate in which the processor is integrated exceed the thermal limit, the processor may be irreversibly damaged.
Although temperature is a thus primary constraint on processor performance, the commonly-used performance parameters such as the Dhrystone million instructions per second (DMIPS) have no readily-characterized temperature dependence. More generally, the performance of intellectual property (IP) blocks is also constrained by temperature with regard to increasing clocking speed and performance. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved techniques to characterize an integrated circuit's performance with regard to it thermal limits.